Oklahoma Baseball
FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
NORMAN, Okla. — University of Oklahoma Vice President/Athletics Director Joe Castiglione and head coach Sunny Golloway announced the Sooners’ 2009 baseball schedule consisting of 56 regular season games on Tuesday.
The Sooners will kick things off on Feb. 20 and host Western Illinois in a four-game set. The weekend series is the first time OU has opened a season at home since 2003 and marks the first of 28 games set to be played at L. Dale Mitchell Park in 2009.
In addition to the Leathernecks, the Sooners will also host Arkansas Little Rock, UCLA, California, Houston Baptist, Central Arkansas, TCU, Wichita State and Southern Utah in non-conference action. The remainder of the non-conference schedule will be played on the road and includes San Diego, Washington State, South Florida, Bethune Cookman, TCU, Arkansas, Wichita State and UT-Arlington.
Overall, Oklahoma will face 12 opponents, for a total of 27 games, that participated in last year’s NCAA Tournament, including nine teams that finished the season ranked in the top 25. Six of those opponents (Nebraska, Oklahoma State, San Diego, TCU, Texas A&M, Wichita State) posted 40 wins a year ago, while Texas A&M and Wichita State both advanced to the Super Regional round of the NCAA Tournament.
“We are excited about our non-conference schedule as we face several teams from last year’s NCAA tournament from some of the best conferences across the country,” said OU Head Coach Sunny Golloway. “It’s once again a challenging schedule that we believe will prepare us for the always tough competition in the Big 12.”
The 27-game Big 12 schedule begins at Missouri on March 20-22. The Sooners will also travel to Kansas State (April 3-5), Texas (April 17-19) and Baylor (April 24-26) during conference play.
In Norman, Oklahoma will host Nebraska (March 27-29), Texas Tech (April 10-12), Kansas (May 1-3) and Texas A&M (May 15-17) in Big 12 action.
The Bedlam Series, presented by The Oklahoman and Oklahoma Farm Bureau Insurance, will take place the second-to-last weekend of the year. Game one between OU and Oklahoma State is set for May 8 in Tulsa at Drillers Stadium. Then the teams return to Oklahoma City for the final two games of the series slated for May 9 and 10 at the AT&T Bricktown Ballpark.
For the fifth consecutive year, the Phillips 66 Big 12 Tournament will be held in Oklahoma City at the Bricktown Ballpark from Wednesday, May 20 through Sunday, May 24.
The NCAA Tournament begins on campus sites with the NCAA Regional (May 29-June 1) and NCAA Super Regional (June 5-8). The 2008 College World Series will be played in Omaha, Neb., at Rosenblatt Stadium from June 13-24.
Returning from OU’s 2008 squad that made the program’s third appearance in an NCAA Regional Final in the last four years is an experienced group of 18 letterwinners. Seven position starters and 10 pitchers will be joined by a talented recruiting class that features nine position players and six hurlers.
“We have a great blend of talent with this team,” said Golloway. “The coaches and players are looking forward to getting things going and building off last year’s success.”
